


Always (and forever)

by nychus



Series: IgNoct Week 2018 [12]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Always, Day 7, Gen, Ignoct Week, Ignoct Week 2018, Major character death - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 10:42:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13657356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nychus/pseuds/nychus
Summary: All the times Ignis promised to remain by Noctis's side.





	Always (and forever)

**Author's Note:**

> IgNoct Week 2018: Day 7 Simple Prompt Always

“You and me, together for always, right?” a five year old Noctis asked his first and only friend.

“Always,” Ignis promised.

“What if I become a monster and start eating people?” Noctis asked.

“Always,” Ignis assured.

~*~*~*~*~

“What happens if I become really ugly and no one wants to be near me? Like I ooze slime or something?” Noctis asked.

“Please stop reading those horrible books, Noct,” Ignis said, glancing over at the bookshelf that held ghost stories and gross tales for seven year olds like the prince.

“No,” was the quick answer. “But would you?”

“Always,” Ignis said with a fond smile.

~*~*~*~*~

“Ignis, come to bed,” Stupeo said quietly, trying to urge the ten-year-old out of the room.

“I can’t, Uncle,” Ignis replied. “I promised I would always be here for him. If he wakes and I’m not here, he’ll be scared.”

“He’ll understand.”

Ignis shook his head, eyes never leaving the prince. The prince who was hooked up to all sorts of machines. “To keep him comfortable” the nurses had said, but Ignis couldn’t see how that could be comfortable.

Stupeo sighed and glanced at the king. Without so much a word, Regis let it be known that Ignis could stay if he wanted. Resigned, Stupeo grabbed a blanket from the closet and draped it over his nephew.

~*~*~*~*~

“What if I never walk again?”

“You will.”

“But what if I don’t?”

Ignis looked up from his work and watched the sullen prince. Noctis hadn’t been the same since he got back from Tenebrae. He had become withdrawn and depressed. The happy face Ignis had grown up with looked as if all the stars had been snuffed from the world.

“Then I will forever push you around.”

Noctis looked up. “Forever and always?”

“Forever and always.”

~*~*~*~*~

“Okay, but let’s say I get kidnapped and dragged away to Niflheim. What happens then?”

“You’d never get that far, your kidnappers would ditch you before you reached Hammerhead.”

“Oh, ha ha,” Noctis said, sticking out his tongue even though Ignis wasn’t looking. “Seriously, though, I’m kidnapped and brainwashed into forgetting who I am. What then?”

With a sigh, Ignis finally looked up. “In the extraordinarily off chance that someone kidnaps you and keeps you long enough to brainwash you, I would search until I found you so that I could bring you home.”

“What if I refuse? Brainwashed and all?” Noctis was smiling at this ridiculous train of thought he was on.

“Then I would work my way into your good graces so that I could remain by your side.”

“Okay, but what if I refuse? You’ve tried to pull me away from what I think is my home and now you just want to be my friend? How does that work?”

“Noct…”

“Just answer the question, Iggy.”

With an exasperated sigh, he said, “Then I would put all my training to use so that I could watch you from afar and help you unknowingly if you should need it.”

“You’d really do that?”

“I did promise I would remain by your side always.”

“Always.”

Ignis smiled, “Yes, always.”

~*~*~*~*~

It had been their worst fight. Noctis was feeling the pressure of impending royal duties crashing in on him as he tried to navigate his final years at school and Ignis was doing whatever he could to keep Noctis afloat. Harsh words were said and while Ignis apologized, Noctis had not. Not really anyway. A quiet truce was made and though Ignis wished there was more he could do, he knew that it was up to Noctis to make that step. He couldn’t force an apology and he didn’t want to.

The hour was much too late for visitors and Ignis was startled to hear his doorbell ring. Setting aside his work, he moved to the door and looked through the peephole to see not much more than a mess of black hair.

“Noctis?” Ignis asked as he opened the door.

To answer, Noctis fell into Ignis’s embrace, hugging tightly and crying. “Do you really want to stay with me?” he asked after a few minutes. There were a lot of unsaid words; words like “even when I’m a brat” and “even if I can’t take care of myself” and “even though I can never find the right words to apologize with” that Ignis let hang in the air for just a moment. Then, squeezing the prince tighter and kissing the top of his head, the only answer Ignis could give was.

“Always.”

~*~*~*~*~

The saphyrtails were an ornery bunch and though the four had managed to knock out half of them, they still managed to separate Ignis and Noctis from the other two. The pair took a brief respite high on a boulder while Ignis took stock of their surroundings and came up with a plan.

“I think our best strategy would be for you to warp to that group of four. Hopefully you will get a kill or two in while also taking them by surprise. Those precious seconds of confusion should allow me a chance to get to you and help finish them off before we rejoin Gladio and Prompto.”

The prince looked to the group Ignis was talking about. Yeah, it seemed like the best thing. As he prepared himself to warp, Noctis asked, “You’ve got my back?”

“Always.”

~*~*~*~*~

“It’s okay to hate me,” Noctis said quietly as the train moved ever onward towards Niflheim. Ever since the left Tenebrae, Noctis’s moods would shift dramatically. Ignis knew it was the guilt of pushing Prompto off the train that piled on top of the guilt he felt for the events of Altissia.

No matter how much Ignis tried to convince him that none of what happened was his fault, there were times Noctis couldn’t help it.

“I could never hate you,” Ignis said.

“But if I had be—”

“Ifs are of no use, Noctis,” Ignis interrupted. “We cannot dwell on the past.”

“Only move forever onward, I know,” he sighed. “But you can still hate me.”

“Never,” Ignis smiled, reaching a hand out in hopes that Noctis would grab hold. He did. “How long have I promised to be with you? No matter what?”

“Always.”

Ignis thought he might be able to hear a little smile in the answer. “Yes. Always.”

~*~*~*~*~

Ignis stared at the crystal even though his eyes were unseeing. He could make out the tiniest hint of light and he could feel the thrum of the magic pulsing through it. Cautiously he placed his hand on one of the crystal forms inside the whole and stood there. He wasn’t sure how long; he wasn’t aware of anything going on around him. He knew that Gladio and Prompto were there, probably making sure Ardyn was truly gone or perhaps trying to figure out how to move the crystal itself.

But Ignis could only stand there; knowing that Noctis was just inside and yet he couldn’t get to him. He couldn’t be with him. He couldn’t keep his promise.

Always suddenly felt like never again.

~*~*~*~*~

The long night had finally ended. The sun was once again seen making its daily rounds across Eos. The world rejoiced and the people praised the Chosen King, the Dawn King, Noctis Lucis Caelum CXIV. Very few knew the king for who he was, immediately placing him on a pillar of greatness and wanting nothing more than to celebrate all he sacrificed.

Noctis would have hated it.

The world slowly returned to itself. The final kings of Lucis were given their proper burials as well as the handful of other brave souls who did more than their fair share in the fight against the Empire and the night. Lestallum remained the central hub for the country of Lucis while Insomnia was torn down and rebuilt. The walls of the city were demolished and much of the areas outside of the city center remained unchanged. The Citadel, however, as well as many of the buildings nearby were turned into a beautiful memorial for the fighters of the night. A statue of Noctis and Lunafreya stood in the center while likenesses of Regis, Clarus, Nyx Ulric, and Ravus flanked them.

As the years passed, more likenesses would join. Cid, Cor, Monica, and others as time took what was always its to have.

Prompto had been the first of Noctis’s retinue to return to the prince. Even well into his 60s he was still searching for that perfect shot. Out in the wilderness, his chocobo was startled, bucking him off and sending him halfway down the side of a mountain. His companions got him care as quickly as they could, but in the end his body just couldn’t recover. He went out with a smile, though. Saying he couldn’t wait to see Noctis and making Ignis and Gladio promise not to come too soon.

It would be a couple of years before illness took the other two within months of each other.

Long before Prompto entered the Beyond, it had been decided that the Dawn King’s royal retinue would join him and Lunafreya in the center. Gladio and Ignis only became aware of this plan (insisted on by Cor, Iris, Talcott, and a few others near the beginning) when Prompto’s memorial started being placed to the left of Lunafreya. Gladio would be between the couple and Ignis on Noctis’s right.

Together in death as in life, always.


End file.
